Danbury woman may be featured on Oprah Winfrey Network reality show

Vinti Singh, Staff Writer

Published
10:39 pm EDT, Thursday, October 14, 2010

(From left) Dawn Keenan, Diana Loman, Donna Waltzer, Vicki Blumberg, Maria Horvath amd Cecilia Mendoza converse over food and drinks in Waltzer's home. Waltzer may appear on a reality show on The Oprah Winfrey Network, and her friends have pledged to support her while she is filmed for eight weeks. less

(From left) Dawn Keenan, Diana Loman, Donna Waltzer, Vicki Blumberg, Maria Horvath amd Cecilia Mendoza converse over food and drinks in Waltzer's home. Waltzer may appear on a reality show on The Oprah Winfrey Network, and her friends have pledged to support her while she is filmed for eight weeks. less

Waltzer, a mother of three and a nurse at Danbury Hospital, will need all their support -- and more -- if she is selected for an intensive, eight-week course: learning the art of belly dancing for a reality TV show.

"(Belly dancing) is secretly something I've wanted to do for a long time," Waltzer said Thursday while standing in her kitchen. "But I have three kids. I'm a football mom."

Waltzer admitted her little secret at a casting call in Norwalk two weeks ago for a new show on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. The network is expected to launch Jan. 1, 2011.

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When to watch
The Oprah Winfrey Network launches on Jan 1, 2011.

The premise of the show is similar to MTV's "Made," a reality TV series that pairs young adults with a coach to achieve a certain goal, whether it's making the cheerleading squad or becoming a rapper. The OWN show will focus on granting adult women's dreams.

Blumberg said Waltzer has always liked to challenge herself. In 2005, Waltzer trained and ran a full marathon in California for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, after her son's friend was diagnosed with the disease.

"I watched Donna's screen test through the clear window, and I knew watching her that she would get picked," Blumberg said. "She's such an animated, loving, beautiful person. I could see it in the interviewer's reaction. I said to her when she stepped out, `You got it.'"

Although Waltzer hasn't been officially cast, she said she was told she'll likely be selected.

A TV camera woman followed Waltzer around all day Thursday to get a snapshot of what her life is like. It was a typical busy day for the 45-year-old mom.

First, Waltzer took the camera woman to The Fraser-Woods School in Newtown, where her son, Andrew, is an eighth-grader.

Next, it was off to piano lessons. Waltzer practices the piano with Andrew, her youngest child, for an hour each day.

Then, she took the camera woman back to her house on Ta'agan Point Road in Danbury, where a group of her closest friends gathered to cook, drink and laugh together.

From there, Waltzer was scheduled to go to Danbury Hospital, where she is a nurse in the Family Birthing Center.

"They're all ironing their scrubs and whitening their teeth," Waltzer said of her coworkers, who were excited to be filmed.